Gingerfeet Release New Single For Hard Rock Rising

Kolkata funk rock band Gingerfeet

Kolkata funk rock band Gingerfeet is taking it one competition at a time. The band, who won the Hornbill Rock contest last year, released their second single, “Stars,” as part of the Hard Rock Rising competition. Gingerfeet traveled all the way to Hyderabad to play at the city’s Hard Rock Café [since there isn’t one in Kolkata] to edge out nine bands and emerge as the winner. “I’ve been following Hard Rock Rising for the past two years. I’ve heard a lot of the bands and even voted for all of them, so I think in that sense, we have that catchy, funky, almost-trippy sound going for us,” says the band’s drummer Abhinandan Mukherjee.

Hard Rock Rising started out in 2009 as the Ambassadors of Rock Battle of the Bands, before changing its name from 2011 onwards. This year, from among 12,000 entries, 96 bands have been shortlisted as winners from each local Hard Rock Café which hosted the competition. Currently, five Indian bands including Gingerfeet, Mumbai Hindi alt rock band Natural Volume, prog rock band Hourglass Inversion from Pune, Bengaluru sufi/alt rock band Divine Raaga and New Delhi indie/alt rock band Frisky Pints, compete against bands from across the world.  

The competition is now open to public voting in the form of song downloads and three of the winning bands will get to perform at the two-day festival Hard Rock Calling on June 29th and 30th in London alongside the likes of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Kasabian, The Black Crowes and Alabama Shakes.  

“Stars” was originally recorded as part of Gingerfeet’s upcoming nine-track album, due in August. “But then we decided if we’re releasing it as a single, we can always include our other songs on the album,” says  Mukherjee.  Gingerfeet have finished recording six out of nine tracks for their upcoming debut album. The band also plays at Kolkata venue Someplace Else next month. “The date still has to be confirmed, but we haven’t played a single gig in Kolkata despite being from here. We’ve played three gigs [after Hornbill] and all of them have been out of town,” says Mukherjee.

Download and vote for Gingerfeet’s “Stars” here. 

To vote for Divine Raaga, Natural Volume, Frisky Pints and Hourglass Inversion, click on the band name.